Jacksonville, NC Property Maintenance: Property Blight (2026)

Section 5-93 declares that Jacksonville has dwellings unfit for human habitation because of dilapidation, fire and safety hazards, and inadequate light, ventilation or sanitation, and states the division exists to set minimum fitness standards under G.S. § 160D-1201. When the building inspector, acting on a complaint or a petition from a public authority or at least five residents, finds after notice and a hearing that a dwelling is merely deteriorated, Section 5-106(b) lets the inspector order the owner to repair, alter or improve it within up to 90 days, and the order can also require the dwelling be vacated and closed until the work is done.

If the inspector instead finds the dwelling dilapidated, the order gives the owner the same 90-day window to choose between repairing it to minimum standards or vacating, removing or demolishing it. An owner who ignores the order faces an in personam remedy, a city council resolution directing the city attorney to petition superior court, or an in rem remedy in which the council authorizes the inspector to do the repair, closure or demolition directly under Section 5-108, post a placard reading the building is unfit for human habitation, and record the action with the register of deeds.

Section 5-109 makes the cost of any city-performed repair or demolition a lien against the property, collected the same way as a special assessment lien. An owner has 10 days to appeal the inspector's order to the housing appeals board or, absent one, the zoning board of adjustment, under Section 5-106(d).